Urban Decay NAKED Smokey Palette | My Notes

*** I revised this review after I cracked into this palette and really dug into the shadows a good bit more. ***

Que up the angel choir, shine down the golden light. The newest Urban Decay NAKED Palette has landed and of course, being obsessed and having to own all of the NAKED palettes, I bought this baby as soon as my local Ulta got them in stock. Why, you might ask did I wait until my Ulta got them in, and not order it online the moment it dropped, like the rest of the makeup maniacs? Easy. Rewards points, Baby. I got a big, fat discount on the price of this palette, thanks to my Ulta Platinum Member Rewards points. I'm not going to say exactly how much I paid for this palette because I'd make you cry. Suffice it to say, it was worth waiting a little longer than the cool girls did to get mine.

::affiliate::

Urban Decay finally listened to my rantings and did something about the NAKED Palette packaging. This NAKED Smokey Palette has a solid, sturdy look and feel. It is constructed of heavy, translucent grey acrylic with a marbled pattern that creates a plume of smoke and the brand and palette names are emblazoned across the lid in raised silver tone lettering. This is one good looking palette.

Lift the securely magnetized lid and you will find the usual full length mirror. In the well, below are nine exclusive to this palette and three repeats from earlier palettes eye shadow shades and yet another double. ended. eye. shadow. brush. Oy.

Urban Decay gave us a nice brush. Double ended, notwithstanding, the synthetic bristles are firm enough to blend and blow out shading while being soft and gentle on the delicate skin of the eyelid. I like the faux horn and metal look of the brush and that pencil style crease end really floats my boat for detailing my crease, outer V, inner corner, smudging my upper or lower lash line. Bristles at both ends of this brush sets my teeth on edge. A decision will have to be made...

Shade progression in the Urban Decay NAKED Smokey Palette makes a lot of sense to me. The shadows are laid out in three quads of different shades and textures that all work together to create many different looks from soft and simple to deep and striking.

Let's take a closer look at the shadows, one quad at a time, shall we?

We begin with four soft, neutral shimmers in both warm and cool tones.

High: Is a rose gold shimmer.

Dirtysweet: A metallic golden shimmer.

Radar: Golden brown shimmer.

Amor: Silvered taupe shimmer.

All four of these shadows are very soft, buttery and have lovely pigmentation and payoff. They apply and blend smoothly and easily.

Moving on to the next quad.

Here we have the deep, smokey shades.

Slanted: Gunmetal grey shimmer.

Dagger: Carbon grey satin with a hint of duochrome shift.

Black Market: Dark charcoal grey satin matte.

Smolder: Blackened plum demi matte.

The texture on these are a bit less smooth and velvety than the first four. Slanted is quite nice however Dagger, Black Market and Smolder needed to be broken into and worn in. Now that I've used these a bit more, they are more biddable. *Revised

And finally we have the mattes.

Four easy lid, transition and highlight shades and tones.

Password: Rich taupe.

Whisky: Milk chocolate brown.

Combust: Soft, barely rosy tan.

Thirteen: Ivory white.

These mattes are smooth and soft to the touch but powdery and while they have nice pigmentation, they can fly away, if overworked. Wear primer and use a light hand with them.

I like the Urban Decay NAKED Smokey Palette. I love the packaging. I am not happy about the double ended brush. The shade range, the mix of warm and cool shades, varying textures and tones make me happy and now that I've cracked into these shadows, further and worn them in a bit, they are performing better than they did when they were new. I am now quite happy that I bought this palette and it is happily fleshing out my little hoard collection of NAKED palettes.

I'm a fifty-something, coffee addicted, empty nesting, sarcastic beauty/lifestyle blogger who believes that life is too short for stupid rules, especially those that pertain to people in my age bracket. If you feel the same way, you may be a member of my tribe.

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Welcome!

I'm a fifty-something, coffee addicted, empty nesting, sarcastic beauty/lifestyle blogger who believes that life is too short for stupid rules, especially those that pertain to people in my age bracket. If you feel the same way, you may be a member of my tribe.